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Around 214,000 individuals are chronically infected with hepatitis C (HCV) in the UK, national estimates from Public Health England (PHE) suggest.

Injecting drug use continues to be the most important risk factor for HCV infection in the UK with half of people who inject drugs (PWID) are thought to have been infected in England and Wales; levels are lower in Northern Ireland (23%) and higher in Scotland (57%).

However, across the UK, more individuals are being tested and diagnosed and “over the last five years particular improvements have been seen in primary care where surveillance indicates that testing has risen by 21%, 46% and 53% in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland respectively”, PHE’s new report Hepatitis C in the UK states.

Around 214,000 individuals are chronically infected with hepatitis C (HCV) in the UK, national estimates from Public Health England (PHE) suggest.

Injecting drug use continues to be the most important risk factor for HCV infection in the UK with half of people who inject drugs (PWID) are thought to have been infected in England and Wales; levels are lower in Northern Ireland (23%) and higher in Scotland (57%).

However, across the UK, more individuals are being tested and diagnosed and “over the last five years particular improvements have been seen in primary care where surveillance indicates that testing has risen by 21%, 46% and 53% in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland respectively”, PHE’s new report Hepatitis C in the UK states.

Health experts concerned about decision not to extend Daklinza treatment to patients with genotype 3 strain of virus

Thousands of people in England with a chronic form of liver disease
are being denied access to life-saving drugs that are available to
patients in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Despite being recommended by European regulators and available in
countries such as France and Germany, draft guidance recently issued by
the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice),
the body that advises NHS England on whether to fund certain drugs,
recommends restricting the use of Daklinza in England. The stance will
affect the treatment of adult patients with a particular strain of
hepatitis C.

The move has dismayed health experts and liver disease charities who
say it will mean a large subset of the sickest and most at risk patients
in England will not receive the treatment they need to prevent them
from potentially fatal liver failure or cancer.

Health experts concerned about decision not to extend Daklinza treatment to patients with genotype 3 strain of virus

Thousands of people in England with a chronic form of liver disease are being denied access to life-saving drugs that are available to patients in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Despite being recommended by European regulators and available in countries such as France and Germany, draft guidance recently issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the body that advises NHS England on whether to fund certain drugs, recommends restricting the use of Daklinza in England. The stance will affect the treatment of adult patients with a particular strain of hepatitis C.

The move has dismayed health experts and liver disease charities who say it will mean a large subset of the sickest and most at risk patients in England will not receive the treatment they need to prevent them from potentially fatal liver failure or cancer.

The NHS has been accused by leading health charities of attempting to “severely limit” the introduction of new drugs to treat hepatitis C because they are too expensive – despite the cost of them being cleared by officials.

The organisations have called on the Health Secretary to intervene, saying that NHS England has made a series of “unprecedented requests” for patients’ access to new drugs to be delayed because of the price.

Yet Nice has approved the drugs as “cost-effective”, leading to a plea from 14 organisations and senior doctors including the Hepatitis C Trust, the National Aids Trust and The Haemophilia Society to Jeremy Hunt.

The NHS has been accused by leading health charities of attempting to
“severely limit” the introduction of new drugs to treat hepatitis C
because they are too expensive – despite the cost of them being cleared
by officials.

The organisations have called on the Health Secretary to intervene,
saying that NHS England has made a series of “unprecedented requests”
for patients’ access to new drugs to be delayed because of the price.

Yet Nice has approved the drugs as “cost-effective”, leading to a plea
from 14 organisations and senior doctors including the Hepatitis C
Trust, the National Aids Trust and The Haemophilia Society to Jeremy
Hunt.

NHS England is stumping up £190m to pay for new hepatitis C treatments from AbbVie and Gilead that are yet to receive full funding from the country’s health service.

The NHS’s main commissioning body said that the existing budget for these drugs would be increased to £190m – up from the £40m budget that began last year.

This is the NHS’s single largest investment in new treatments this year (except for the £280m Cancer Drugs Fund), but comes after a long delay for this extra funding stream.

The money will go to the roughly 3,500 hepatitis C patients in England and Wales with cirrhosis of the liver, and will gain access by the end of this year to AbbVie’s Viekirax, a three-drug combination therapy for the disease, and Exviera (dasabuvir), as well as Gilead’s hep C pills Sovaldi and Harvoni.

NHS England is stumping up £190m to pay for new hepatitis C treatments from AbbVie and Gilead that are yet to receive full funding from the country’s health service.

The NHS’s main commissioning body said that the existing budget for these drugs would be increased to £190m – up from the £40m budget that began last year.

This is the NHS’s single largest investment in new treatments this year (except for the £280m Cancer Drugs Fund), but comes after a long delay for this extra funding stream.

The money will go to the roughly 3,500 hepatitis C patients in England and Wales with cirrhosis of the liver, and will gain access by the end of this year to AbbVie’s Viekirax, a three-drug combination therapy for the disease, and Exviera (dasabuvir), as well as Gilead’s hep C pills Sovaldi and Harvoni.

The study is aimed at assessing the safety and immunogenicity of HCV prime-boost vaccinations ChAd3-hliNSmut and MVA-hliNSmut, administered intramuscularly in healthy volunteers and DAA treated patients. To read the entire study, click here Share This PageFollow Us … Continue reading → The post The study is aimed at assessing the safety and immunogenicity of HCV […]

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of DAA-based regimens in the clinical practice in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients. Hypothesis: The efficacy and tolerability of all DAA-based regimens in the clinical practice is different to what is … Continue reading → The post Real-life Security and Efficacy of DAA-based Therapy in 1,000 […]